Introduction

"The eyes can be deceived. One must look with the heart."

WARNING: PLEASE BEFORE YOU VOTE READ THE GUIDE! STOP VOTING THIS BUILD DOWN JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT ANOTHER BUILD TO LOOK BETTER. IF YOU DO THAT I SWEAR I WILL REPORT TO MOBAFIRE THE PERSON WHO VOTED AND THE PERSON'S BUILD WHO YOU VOTED FOR.

NOTE: After various testing of my first build, I decided to start re-making the first build into a better one, I will test out more items and see how they do. I recommend you to use the second build for better results.

Hello and this is my first build so try it out before you even vote!

Welcome to my guide for Lee Sin. I will teach you MY way of playing Lee Sin but whether or not you use my playing style or not is your choice.

I am welcome to suggestions and constructive comments - if you think anything could be made better, then please say so! However, I don't appreaciate people saying "This build sucks!" without reasoning. Please at least leave a reason why.

My LoL Summoner name: UtimatePr0

I will also be updating this build regularly according to new factors and comments. Enjoy!

Note: I do NOT play Lee Sin as a carry but rather an ANTI-carry. I believe this role suits Lee Sin better than any other roles (leave the carrying to your Yi or Ashe), so this build is focused on his Anti-Carry aspect. If you want to play Lee Sin as a carry please look at other builds.

Second build is up! Note that the second build more focusing more on the speed and crit chance aspect of Lee Sin as an (Anti-carry) ASSASSIN. People who want to carry/kill more are better off using the second build.

Third build is up, since many people disliked my jungling method I decided to make a new jungling build.

Cons:
Somewhat Squishy (Early-mid game)
Becomes increasingly useless in late game if not fed and not played correctly
Need to be careful of selection of skills
Skills have high energy cost and you run out of energy really quick
Weak to CC
Long Cooldowns on main skills
Weak chaser and his Q skill has HORRIBLE range
Relies heavily on teamies later on

Laning builds: What difference is there between Build 1 and 2?

The two builds are for you to experiment to see which one you like more. Build no.1 is focused more on focusing down and killing their squishies while threatening to their tanks. Build no.1 also has decent survivability (teamplayer/anti-tank) in teamfights while Build no.2 is focused more on the Burst Assassin type (killer/carry) character of Lee Sin.

Jungling Build: Build 3

Due to many down-votes about the jungling section i decided to make a 3rd build. I made it in a hurry so for the jungling route please look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oCabfn8d58 (Thanks to stonewall). With a jungling build you will try to get both buffs and gank someone and hopefully get kills, although I prefer laning with Lee Sin it is a good way to play safe and not get harrassed while jungling. Note you have to recall at level 3 before killing the blue golem. Jungle route is also in the bottom in the jungle section. Remember though, although your early game playing style is different, as the game progresses on, you will still be an Anti-Carry assassin character.

Runes

For marks I take Greater Mark of Desolation Armour Penetration cause for more damage with his basic attacks, his Q and E skill and his ultimate.

For Seals, You have a choice.
You can take More attack speed if you're gonna jungle more or you can take crit chance if you want to have outstanding burst damage in early game. If you want to play more defensively, take dodge seals and change your masteries to the standard 21/9/0 with dodge chance and evasion included.

Glyphs you can choose between Cooldown reduction or Magic resist per level .
The reason I don't go for the Cooldown normally is because in late game, especially if you haven't built a mercs treads, your magic resist will be around 30-40. This makes you VERY vunerable to magical attacks and you will die very quickly. However, if you take magic resist per level glyphs, you will have at least 54 magic resist, which is ALOT better than 30. If you feel you can survive well (or very rich!) then take cooldown reduction so you use your skills more often.

At level 1, you should have at least 25 armour penetration from runes and that means that you'll be dealing 100% damage to enemy champs cause most of them start with 15-25 armour. This is a HUGE advantage especially for a early burst damage character such as Lee Sin.

Masteries

I take the 21/5/4 masteries will magic pen included. Many of you will think: "Why take magic pen when you're a melee dps?" The reason is because your third skill, Tempest deals magical damage and would you rather have your tempest deal more damage or would you rather increase your attack speed by 1%? Your choice. I take bonus Armour and Magic resist with increased Health regen and improved ghost in the Defensive and Utility column.

If you have dodge seals then change it into 21/9/0 with dodge chance and evasion included.

If you wanna jungle, take 21/0/9 with increase exp gain by 5% and neutral buff duration by 15%.

Summoner Spells

I take exhaust to shut down their carries and to chase people especially in early game and 1 on 1s

I take ghost for increased mobility to chase, escape or to return to lane/ defend turrets faster.

Alternatives:
Flash- Standard replacement for ghost, since nerf on ghost more people take flash. However i like Ghost more because Lee Sin needs to chase people down. You can also replace exhaust for this.

Ignite - I personally don't like ignite on melee characters, as I personally only use them with magic casters for the damage needed to finish someone off. But with Lee Sin I believe your basic attacks and skills should be enough to finish them off.

Cleanse- A good life saver and anti cc spell, but since you have mercs treads you don't really need to get it. Take it instead of exhaust if you want.

Teleport- Good for back dooring and defending turrets. If you have a teemo, shaco tell them to place shrooms and jack in the boxes around the map so you can teleport to them. Or just put wards instead.

Smite ONLY if you are jungling. Jungle section at the bottom.

Any other spells are either useless or are more useful for other characters to take.

Skill Sequence

You want to level up your main attacking skills,Sonic Wave/Resonating strikealong withTempest/Crippleas fast as possible. This allows you to have great damage output especially in early game-mid game. At max level your Sonic Wave/Resonating Strike will have a cooldown of 4 seconds (Awesome for chasing). I put one point in Safeguardat level 3 because the jumping factor of the skill is awesome. The 40 damage shield can really save lives especially in early game. Like once, I survived with 3 hp because i used my shield to block galio's righteous gust (he was pissed XD). I also take Dragon's Rage(His Ult) whenever I can.

Skill usage

IMPORTANT: REMEMBER TO FULLY UTILZE HIS PASSIVE BY CASTING A SKILL ONCE AND HITTING TWICE WITH BASIC ATTACKS TO MAXIMISE YOUR ENERGY GAIN!

Lee Sin's skills have many uses, and I will be explaining how to use his skills one at a time:

Sonic Wave/Resonating strike:
This skill is your main initiator, your finisher, your harrasser and your chaser. Although the range on this spell is very short it is still very useful. Try to get your enemy with this skill when you're ganking or initiating. The correct usage and aiming of this skill separates the good Lee Sins against the bad ones. Also remember, using the 2 spell combo of this andwithCripple uses ALL your energy, so be careful in choosing what skills you are gonna use. Other interesting combos with this is using it with your ult. Hit the target withSonic wave, Then kick him/her away with your ultand follow through withResonating strike. Also you can useSonic wave with Resonating striketo teleport through walls if you hit a creep/jungle monster. This skill also scales with AD so it deals a lot of damage with this build.

Safeguard/Iron Willis a very useful skill and can save your life or your allies in many occasions.Safeguard can also be used as a initiating skill because sometimes the enemy is too hard to hit with Sonic wave because they are farming minions behind their creeps. The shield although is weak, but none-the-less is useful. The jumping aspect of this skill can also let you escape ganks, go through walls if on the opposite side there is a friendly unit, or initiate on a target farming minions.Iron will on the other hand is useful for jungling and helping you regen health but other than that it is not that useful.

Tempest/Crippleis your follow through after yourSonic wave+Resonating strikecombo with this your enemy will be devastated (especially in early game) and will attempt to run but is slowed from yourCripple while you can slowly finish them off XD. Note that it also REVEALS enemy units (even stealth!) so that you see that Akali hiding inside her smoke bomb? No worries, just hitTempest in the middle of it and she will be standing in there waiting for you to kill her. This ability has horrible scaling with AD (but deals magic damage) but none-the-less still useful in this build.

Dragon's Rage is your ultimate and DEALS HOLY **** AMOUNTS OF DAMAGE to a single target and knocks it back and any enemies in the path of the champion thats knocked back will be knocked up into the air and also taking damage. This ability also has many uses. It can be used to finish somebody running away (It has quite a long range for a non-range melee attack) or it can be used to interupt somebody's ult (Like Nunu's Absolute Zero or Warwick's Infinite Duress and you can use it to knock somebody away from you or your ally or knock someone into your team or turret. Or use the guy you kick as a human missile to get kills for you. THERE ARE A MILLION GAZILLION WAYS OF USING THIS ULTIMATE!!! So experiment with it! This skill also has pretty awesome scaling with AD so it deals quite a lot with this build XD.

Laning partners

Good teammates or bad teammates can lead you and your team into victory or demise. Lee Sin HEAVILY relies on teammates at all times during the duration of the game. Because he doesn't have much CC or harrassing or sustainability skills, a good laning partner should fit in one of those aspects. Here I will suggest some awesome laning buddies.

Karma is a support, healer, nuker, shielder, buffer and harrasser. She makes up for nearly everything Lee Sin needs to stay in lane and dominate. Her heals and shields can be the difference between your life and death and her ability to support you can also lead you into many kills you can't do with another laning buddy.

Xin Zhao has an awesome initiator, CC abilities and great burst damaging damaging abilities. He and you are almost indestrucible. The only weak point is that you and him are very vunerable to CC but your burst damage together should make up for it.

Suprise, suprise! You never thought of him right? Although he's not a support or a CCer, you and him can lead to great lane dominance and yes, a lot of kills. His Judgement and Decisive Strike and awesome harrassing skills that deal high amounts of damage. And if anybody over-extends you can always shut that person down with exhuast and watch his health drop!

An awesome lane buddy altogether, he has very good harrassing abilities, CC and pretty substancial burst damage. Also your Safeguard and Sonic Wave+Resonating strike skills can go into Jarvan's arena while your Dragon's Rage that kick them away knocking his other allies inside the arena up, while the person you kicked is still trapped in the arena.

Important: Just remember Lee Sin is not a carry and relies on his team in order to yield good results!

More to come!

Item Choice

Anti-Carry build: The items I chose were all mainly damage items with a little bit of crit chance and also fair bits of health, armour and magic resist. This build should make your Lee Sin pretty sturdy through out the game. However this DOES NOT give you much attack speed (other than his passive ) so it is CRUCIAL that you remember to use your Youmuu's ghostblade active effect ALL THE TIME in fights!

AS&Crit chance build: These items are focused nearly all on the offensive side of Lee Sin. He is very squishy here but is completely awesome when chasing or when killing people super fast. Relies on basic attacks and crits more than skills.

In early game, after you port back each time you might wanna get a few health potions (around 2 should be fine) so you can regen your health, because people normally harrass Lee Sin quite a lot.

Situational items

Defensive:

Randuin's Omen is a nice addition to your CC ability and its passive is a life saver. It gives you a HUGE amount of armour and a fair bit of health. Get it especially if their Yi/Ashe is raping the f*ck out of you in late game. Replace Atma's with this.

Banshee's Veil is a good item for any melee character especially in late game as the passive is a life saver when someone is trying to CC the hell out of you so you will die but you block it and they get pissed XD. Gives you Health, Mana (This is why i didn't put it into the main build) and magic resist.

Offensive:

An Infinity Edge is a great replacement for your atma's if you feel like you have enough armour and want more damage. For Build no.1 only.

A Tri-force is a good item for more burst damage. Unlike most other Lee Sins I do not take this because I believe the cost is not worth it, and although you are focusing on burst damage, if you do not have much attack damage then what use is it's spell-proc effect? Also Lee Sin has no use for mana and Only his Safeguard spell benefits from ability power. If you still wanna use it, replace with Youmuu's (Early game) or Atma's (Late game). For Build no.1&no.2.

This Phantom Dancer is for all those crit/attack speed fanatics. Although I don't play Lee Sin as a carry this item is still viable for its movement speed and its crit chance. Replace Youmuu's (Early game) or Atma's (Late game) with this. This is for Build no.1 only.

The Last Whisper I did include in my first build but not in my second. The reason being I needed cheap AD items in that build and in my second build, all my items are pretty exspensive. I don't think you'll need Last Whisper to kill their squishies with the second build. But if the enemy has like 3 tanks then you obviously need it. For Build no.2 only.

Boots:

If you want to increase your Anti-carry aspect more while not worried about your defense I suggest you take Ionian boots of lucidity for increased cooldown reduction for more spamming, killing and harrassing with your skills. With this, Your Sonic wave/Resonating strike's cooldown should reach around 3-4 (depending on runes) seconds you when max it. Imagine the this as Pantheon's Spear shot but also deals more damage and gets you right next to the opponent. I have used these boots for Build no.2 already so this only applies to Build no.1.

As my friend Kreykan pointed out to me, you don't get much attack speed from this build and he finds it hard to kill those Nocturnes fast enough so he bought Berserker's Greaves and started pwning that Nocturne back. Berserker's Greaves is a good, cheap AS item to use if you don't mind switching out your Mercs Treads for more offensive power early game. However these boots aren't that useful in late game so you might wanna sell them later on for a Mercs Treads. Another reason I didn't put this into my main build is because I am not
carrying with this Anti-carry build. So keep that in mind.

Ninja Tabi is the counter part to Mercury's Treads. It gives armour and dodge (useful if you have dodge runes) and is deadly against their Yi/Ashe/Tryndamere so if their team if heavy AD get these instead or Mercs Treads. However, getting this instead of Mercs Treads will
make you more vunerable to cc and to magical attacks.

Arguably the BEST boots out there for almost ANY champion. Reason? Simple, its magic resist plus unique passive are LIFE-SAVERS! Its passive: Reduce the duration of ALL Crowd Control (CC) effects on the champion by 35%. See the awesomeness? The only down side is that these boots are also the most exs*****ve, but I guess its worth the farming! Get these if the enemy has at least 4 CC skills or abilities or 3 AP Casters/Nukers. This only applies to build no.2 because I have already included Mercs Treads in the first build.

An overall good pair of boots with nothing special except for movement speed. This pair of boots I've recommended to use with the jungling build and also this pair of boots is useful for build 1, for chasing down people and easier ganking. If you don't mind sacrificing a little of your defense that is. Overall a good pair of boots, anyways a little extra movement speed does not do any harm.

People are extremely welcome to suggest more items for Lee Sin in this section.

Playing Style: Early

Your goal in early game is to KILL!!!!!!
Lee Sin has probably one of the highest burst damage in early game and with a good partner you can totally dominate.

I aim to harrass mainly with Sonic Wave and Resonating Strike with a Tempest follow through. With a good partner you should be able to get the enemy down to around 200-300 health. When they are this low try to hit them with Sonic Wave and Resonating Strike and finish them off with your Tempest/Cripple while using exhaust/ghost and punching them with basic attacks. Note that this combo will leave you energy-less so be careful.

Watch out for ganks and try not to get yourself killed while killing someone else. Although thats kinda hard because you always get yourself really low on health XD

For Jungling build, you must try to obtain both buffs as soon as possible and then go to gank someone who overextends, is getting cocky, or about to die. Remember Lee Sin is a great burst champion so don't be too afraid to gank if they're turret hugging with little health. Just make sure you can kill and run away safely. Lee Sin can also solo dragon at around level 6-8 or just get a teammate to help you if you're unsure.

Playing Style: Mid

In Mid game, this will stil be your shine-time as considering your enemies have fed you and you are ganking constantly for kills.

However in team fights, your playing style will be different. Your goal in teamfights is to FOCUS DOWN THEIR CARRIES!!! Don't stand in a group with your team but go to the side and kill their squishies and carries when the fight starts.

With build no.2 and jungling build your playing style will generally be the same, you aim for the carries in their team first and kill them quickly, then once they are all dead finish off the tanks. However, remember the fact that you rely on your basic attacks to deal most of your damage and you are more vunerable to CC.

Playing Style: Late

In late game, your job will be mainly to take down their carries and back door their turrets/inhibitors.

For Build no.1: Remember in late game Lee Sin IS NOT A SUPERMAN! He cannot win 1v5s or even 1v1 people like warwick or nocturne (HATE THEM!!) You have to play safe and remember your job as an ANTI-CARRY.I CANNOT STRESS THIS POINT MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE (Leave the carrying to your Yi/Ashe). If you were awesome in early and mid game you'll probably have won but sometimes it just ain't the case. Try to gank and pick off people 1 by 1 with the help of your team (Lee Sin has terrible cc thats why you need your teamies).

For Build no.2 and Jungle build: Now your Lee Sin should be a deadly machine to 1v1 against and can kill the enemies squishies in a few seconds but remember you role in the team as a ASSASSIN and DPSer and you cannot take in a few nukes and expect to still survive. Especially if your fed and they will throw as much CC on you as possible to minimise your threat to them. At this point in game, one simple mistake can lead to your demise and you losing the game so stay close to your team, watch for the enemy and jump in at the right time in teamfights, etc. ACCEPT the fact you are squishy and play like one! These are the skills needed for you to survive in late game with Lee Sin.

Jungling

JUNGLE BUILD UP!
I have only tried one route for jungling.

I also recommend to take smite instead of exhaust to make your job easier.

Change your masteries according to build.

Correct jungling with Lee Sin is very dependant on his passive . You need to cast 1 skill first, hit 2 attacks then cast that skill again and hit 2 attacks. Then cast another skill and do the same.

Also your skill sequence should be Tempest at level 1, Safeguard at level 2 and then Tempest again at level 3, Safeguard at 4 and Sonic wave at 5. Then continue on according to build.

At first instead of buying Dorans blade grab a Cloth Armor for more protection against the jungle creeps and 5 Health potions. Take Tempest instead of Sonic Wave. Start at the Wolves. Kill the largest wolf and finish off the other two. Head downwards to the Wraiths and kill them. Smite the blue one and kill the others. Remember to use your tempest and HIT the enemy two times before activating your second skill. This goes for all skills as well. After the wraiths are dead, go down to the mini golems and killing them both. Afterwards, recall and grab your long sword/boots and a few health potions if possible. After buying items, head up to blue buff golem and kill it. Remember to smite when its around 500 health. Afterwards go kill the wolves again, the wraiths and then kill the red buff lizard and smite it to finish it off. Afterwards kill the mini golems and you're ready to gank!

Hate and Troll votes/comments

Hi all, I made this section of this guide to help you understand WHY this build's rating is soo low. Here I will post those comments which are absolutely unacceptable so you can understand why this build's rating is not as high as it is supposed to be.

SpacialRending wrote:
didn't work for me

My question: By using this build does not instantly make you invincible and make you completely unkillable and it all relies on skill and how you use Lee Sin. Not my problem that you probably suck at him. Be more reasonable before you vote brainless ******.

icanhazbuildguide wrote:
Simply not working

My question: Bad player? Same as above (funny thing is that those two accounts went to other Lee Sin builds and voted down with the exact same reasoning and both voted up for the same build.

Hopoffthecop wrote:
I didn't see any pentakills :/

My question: In order for you to achieve penta-kills you need skill, timing, positioning, a good team, and a bit of luck. How rarely does that happen? Seriously, the guide name was just a bit of a joke and I'm sure you must have better reasoning than mocking my guide name? Anyways did you even TRY out my build?

YummyPoo wrote:
bad

My question: Why is it bad? My guide or build? Tell me how to improve than rather saying bad and nothing else.

Man I love how some people like going on accounts and trolling and only voting for their friends or themselves and don't even bother trying the builds out.

Summary

Hope you have enjoyed my Lee Sin guide. I will be updating this so keep in touch! Lee Sin is a very fun champion and I hope you enjoy playing as well!
Remember that "Force is meaningless without skill."

This is UtimatePr0, Signing off.

PS:Remember to vote!

01/04/11 Build published.
01/04/11 Added more bits of information.
02/04/11 MAJOR update on build, with pictures, Jungling, Skill usage, and more information.
03/04/11 Added Boots section in Situational items, fixed some unwanted things and added more information into build guide.
04/04/11 Build no.2 released! (AS/Crit chance/Anti-Carry) and more updates on situational items and play styles. Started to input more icons instead of images into build.
05/04/11 More icons, more info and fixed some spelling mistakes. Re-making build 1 and found that there are bugs for Lee Sin's skill icons. JUNGLE BUILD RELEASED!
06/04/11 Making minor improvements, continuing to re-develop my first build and made the Laning Partners section. (Don't have much time cause I have like 8 hours of swimming every week)
07/04/11 Put boots of swiftness into situational items section and still refining build 1.
08/04/11 Updated jungling section a little more.
10/04/11 Added TROLLING section and my own WALL OF SHAME. SHAME ON YOU TROLLERS!!

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